Pivotal point with climate

Regarding the Aug. 12 letter, “Pivotal point with climate”: The writer is probably a well-meaning person trying to save the planet, but unfortunately the facts she presents are erroneous.

She states: “Ice-core samples over the past 10,000 years show that Earth’s climate has been particularly stable.”

In fact, over the last 10,000 years, we have seen a great retreat of continental ice sheets all the way from the Chicago area to the polar regions, which is still in progress. Also, during the past 10,000 years, Earth was subjected to the Medieval Warming Period, from about 950 to 1250, and the Little Ice Age, from 1300 to the late 19th century.

What the ice-core studies do show is that during this period of great climate instability, the atmospheric CO2 levels remained remarkably stable, generally under 300 parts per million. In recent years CO2 levels have increased to the 400 ppm level, and this might be cause for some alarm, but wrong information does not help her cause.

The rise of civilization through this period of climate instability was largely due to humans’ ingenuity to adapt to climate change.

Morris Kaufman

Spokane Valley